Wise Water Use (Indoor)

High Efficiency Toilet

Why use six litres per flush when this ultraefficient toilet can do it with three? The toilet uses air pressure to achieve superior performance and features a compact and stylish design. Toilet consumption can account for 30% of total household water consumption and this unit will achieve a significant reduction.

Related Rebates: The Region of Waterloo offers incentives to homeowners who replace old toilets with high-efficency WaterSense-certified toliets. For more information refer to the Waterloo Region Toilet Replacement Program

Showerhead Display

Our interactive Showerhead Display demonstrates six high-efficiency showerheads to show the variety of styles and types of flow available.

New high-efficiency showerheads use as little as 4.5 litres of water per minute. Compare this to standard new showerheads which use on average 9.5 litres/min, or older models that use 19 litres/min or more, and you can see that the savings are significant.

A lower flow rate means that not only less water is used, but also that less energy is used because less water heating is needed. These important savings are achieved while maintaining strong water pressure and an enjoyable shower experience.

Products and Donors: High-efficiency showerheads a kind donation of Moen

Dishwasher

The newest ENERGY STAR dishwashers use less water, soap, and energy than even frugal hand washing. The dishwasher at REEP House uses only 11 litres of water per load. Compare this to dishwashers built before 1994, which use at least 37 litres per load.

Water Softener

Sodium chloride levels from salt are increasing in the environment and water softeners contribute to this problem.

The Region of Waterloo and the City of Guelph tested a variety of softeners to rate how much salt and water they use to do their job. The report and other information is available for homeowners who are considering purchasing a water softener through their Water Softener Facts website.

Using the Region of Waterloo Water Softener Report as a guide, we identified a model that used the lowest amount of water and salt of those available at the time. It also uses no electricity to operate.

Washing Machine

The newest washing machine models have come a long way. A new ENERGY STAR machine like this one uses one-sixth of the energy and half of the water of a standard 2001 model.

A total of 85 to 90% of the energy used by a washing machine is in fact used by the home’s water heater to provide hot water, and so one of the best energy saving techniques is to wash using cold water.

Grey Water System

A grey water system captures, filters, treats and re-uses drain water from hand-washing sinks and showers.

The water is then recycled for toilet flushing, saving 30,000 litres of water per year for the average family and about $150 in water bills. If grey water systems were in every Canadian home, we could save billions of litres of water!